VMware is getting slow

21/06/2011 at 4:37 pm | Posted in portable system, VMware | Leave a comment Edit this post

You have a fast PC (mine is i7 with 8gb ram) but it takes ages before you see the desktop. This is because you have set the processor settings as automatic.

Most of you know what is number of processor and RAM etc. But some of you may not know that VMware is optimised for Intel PCs.

To adjust this, adjust > settings > processors > virtualization engine.

If you have an iCore processor like i5 for eg, then you should use intel VT -x/EPT. Older processors, use without x/EPT.

Taking ownership of VM

21/06/2011 at 4:22 pm | Posted in VMware | Leave a comment Edit this post

“This virtual machine appears to be in use” is the error message.

There may be times when your pc hung while a VM is running. Sometimes you are able to take ownership after restart. However most of the times you can’t.

To overcome this. You should delete all files temporary files. Most of them (folders) ends with .lck. Some are just numbers like 564d97c4-3f62-a7bd-bbf2-a62fb89b61ce.vmem. Look at the dates and you know what are the temp. files.

Pencil animation software

28/05/2011 at 9:26 pm | Posted in recommendation, software | Leave a comment Edit this post

Of late, I have an interest in animation software after playing with Nintendo DS Flipnote Studio. Was able to create a small (256 x 192 frame size) animation with 2 colours. Flipnote is impressive! But I wonder how a full fledged software on a PC is able to produce.

Found such a software and I like it so far. Its called Pencil. It’s open source and it comes with Mac, Linux and Windows version. Works very well with a tablet. Mine’s a wacom bamboo.

Some nagging issues

Only in Mac it can export to movies. Other versions can export a series of .PNGs.
My workaround : If you don’t have a Mac, then you can combine the .PNGs in Macromedia flash to create the movies.

There was a problem in windows to import images.
My workaround : Use a graphic software (photoshop or fireworks) select and copy it. Then go to pencil and use the select box and make a box big enough to fit the image. Paste and you got it.

Other workarounds would involve open its native files with a PNG file created with a graphic software.

Another bug is the step forward one frame using the arrow key will some time fail to work. A workaround is to alt-tab to another app. Then come back to pencil and you will see the arrow key can control the frame again.

Conclusion

It works albeit a “few” bugs. However, for real work, you need something established like Adobe Flash.

Why Linux is better

28/03/2011 at 4:54 pm | Posted in portable system, recommendation | Leave a comment Edit this post
  1. Common Unix utilities, such as grep, rsync, ssh, lsof, and others.
  2. Portability.
  3. Various shells, including their script syntax.
  4. The command line interface.
  5. Plain text configuration files.
  6. Builtin programming language support for many languages.
  7. All the supported filesystems (ZFS, Ext4, Reiser, UFS, etc.).
  8. Overall rock-solid stability and reliability.
  9. Lack of viruses, trojans, and other malware.
  10. Tremendous networking capabilities (PPoE, TCP/IP, etc.).
  11. Bulletproof firewall software.
  12. Overall builtin security in general (MACs, PAM, etc.).
  13. Quality user/group management.
  14. System resource usage.
  15. Both vertical and horizontal scaling.
  16. Open source kernel and user-space software.
  17. Based on standards (POSIX, FHS, LSB, etc.).
  18. Vast selection of software choices and free
  19. Simplicity in software design- do one thing, and do it well.
  20. hardware support.
  21. Support for hundreds of languages and locales out of the box.

Based on this source but amended to suit my taste.

VBulletin spam registration Captcha

24/11/2010 at 2:41 pm | Posted in internet, security | Leave a comment Edit this post

I am an administrator of several forums. From phpbb to vbulletin. There has always been a problem with spammers registering to our forums. Then one day I see the light. I noticed that despite our countermeasures in place, namely captcha, they are able to register with ease. And looking at the logs, it seemed obvious that they are able to automate and decipher the Captcha. Don’t ask me how but these bots can. So I tried changing the default Captcha settings and boy was there a drastic reduction in spam registration. But what really did it is when I use Question & Answer Verification instead of Captcha. I believe only available in VB4 onwards.

Spam registration is now a thing of the past and it feels great!

underpowered USB hardisk with Nokia charger

16/11/2010 at 3:47 pm | Posted in recommendation, VMware | Leave a comment Edit this post

USB hardisk has brought about many conveniences to portable storage. it can transport amount larger than any thumbdrive or CF card out there. However, they require a bit of power to run the disk. Some machines, especially laptops may not be giving enough power and hence the disk fail at times when we needed them most. Most big disks like my 1 TB Maxtor USB/Firewire hardisk has their own separate power but small ones normally do not require any, or so it may seems.

Unfortunately, that is not true and I do have intermittent problems. This is solved when I discovered a power socket option on one of the portable hardisk I have. It’s actually the power socket for e-Sata option but my laptop does not have e-Sata. It says 5v. Coincidently, I have an old unused Nokia charger of 3v. I took the chance as the socket matches. Now, my laptop has no difficulty discovering and mounting the USB hardisk and has been running it reliably too during long data transfers. I have less fear of the disk losing connection now.

Virtualisation with VMware

29/10/2010 at 8:35 pm | Posted in portable system, systems harmony, VMware | Leave a comment Edit this post

I absolutely love it. If you have just 2 machines but you want to try different OS, then virtualisation is the way to go. There are 2 paths about it, one is using VMware while the other is using Virtual Box (opensource). I am using VMware since I already started using it before Virtual Box come to the picture.

I also realise I can also make my favourite desktop portable. I can use the same files created by windows, to be used on Macintosh and vice versa. So right now. I am making my ubuntu portable. At work I use a Mac to run the ubuntu. Then when I am at home, I use windows 7 to run my ubuntu. How cool is that? But it wasn’t without its problems. That’s why I have this blog to remember the path I took before I reach the “it just works” stage.

NFS SMB Mac Windows Linux network File sharing

11/09/2010 at 9:59 pm | Posted in Mac, security, systems harmony, windows | Leave a comment Edit this post

After much testing, I conclude that Windows file sharing (SMB) is slightly easier than with other OS. Even so, SMB is not without it problems. You have to get everyone withing the same workgroup for it to work.

A bit disappointed that NFS works well in unix/linux environment but flakey with Windows and OS X, but when it does, it work very well.

Fortunately, I can still manage to share files with SSH when I want to share files from Mac or Linux.

In the age of NAS, I would prefer simplicity. Just plug your hardisk using USB and format to the appropriate system.

How to create a mounted drive or change a drive letter

03/09/2010 at 5:50 pm | Posted in windows | 1 Comment Edit this post

This is from Microsoft knowledgebase but with some additional stuff added by me.

To mount a volume:

  1. Click Start, click Run, and then type compmgmt.msc in the Open box.
  2. In the left pane, click Disk Management. you can also type DISKMGMT.MSC
  3. Right-click the partition or volume that you want to mount, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Click Mount in the following empty NTFS folder (if it is not already selected), and then use one of the following steps:
    • Type the path to an empty folder on an NTFS volume, and then click OK.
    • Click Browse, locate the empty NTFS folder, click OK, and then click OK.
    • If you have not yet created an empty folder, click Browse, click New Folder to create an empty folder on an NTFS volume, type a name for the new folder, click OK, and then click OK.
  6. Quit the Disk Management snap-in.

How to remove a mounted drive

// To remove a mounted volume:

  1. Click Start, click Run, and then type compmgmt.msc in the Open box.
  2. In the left pane, click Disk Management.
  3. Right-click the partition or volume that you want to unmount, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
  4. Click the mounted drive path that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
  5. Click Yes when you are prompted to remove the drive path.
  6. Quit the Disk Management snap-in.

Show facebook thumbnail during share

28/07/2010 at 1:23 pm | Posted in internet | Leave a comment Edit this post

In facebook, whenever I share a youtube video, the thumbnail will automatically appear. It gives the reader an idea what the video is about. Similarly if you want to share a website, a thumbnail will appear. This will make the reader curious and click the link further. However, there are times when there is no preview thumbnail appearing even when there are several pictures on the webpage.

There is a way around this. Here are 2 things you need to do on the website.

  1. make a thumbnail picture not more than 200px on the wide end. A square picture is ideal.
  2. put this meta tag < link rel=”image_src” href=”http://site.com/image.jpg” /> on the header (not body) of the page. It also helps to have a “title”.

Paste the URL on the share facebook box and once the image has been read, press submit and you are done.

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